1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system in which a device for carrying out medical image processing obtains medical image data from a device for storing the medical image data and applies the image processing to the obtained image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a form of a client-server type medical image processing system, a system is known in which, in order to display a medical image on a client terminal, the entire original image data is transferred to the client terminal from an image storage server for storing medical image data, and the client terminal applies image processing desired by the user to the transferred original image data to display the processed image. In such a system, once the original image data is transferred to the client terminal, the client terminal applies the image processing to the image data held thereon, and therefore, higher response at the client terminal can be provided since no data transfer is carried out during the image processing.
However, since the data volume of original image data has been increased due to the higher processing speed and higher performance, such as multi-slice capability, of imaging modalities, such as CT and MRI apparatuses, and the resulting higher resolution of taken images, the communication load for transferring the original image data from the image storage server to the client terminal and the load of image processing at the client terminal have been increased.
In order to address this situation, a system is known in which the image storage server is provided with the image processing capability (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-166911). In this system, the client terminal retrieves from the image storage server a part of image data forming an image stored in the image storage server and performs preliminary image processing using the part of the data to determine image processing conditions. Then, the client terminal sends the determined image processing conditions to the image storage server so that the image storage server performs the image processing according to the image processing conditions and transfers the processed image to the client terminal. In this system, the partial image data of the original image data which is necessary for determining the image processing conditions and the processed image data having the data volume smaller than that of the original image are transferred from the image storage server to the client terminal. Therefore, compared to a case where the entire original image data is transferred from the image storage server to the client terminal, reduction of the transferred data volume is expected and thus the communication load is reduced. Further, since the image processing conditions are determined only at the client terminal using the retrieved partial image data, the response at the client terminal is maintained.
However, depending on business requirements at the user side and/or various circumstances, such as performances of the image storage server, the client terminal and the network forming the system, it may be difficult to provide the image processing capability on the image storage server.